It turns out the Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage film was a work of fiction. Duh.

The Rock Who knew it was so influential? Image Buena Vista Pictures

One of the screenwriters of The Rock has finally responded to the revelations concerning the weapons used in the film and the role they played in justifying the UK’s role in the Iraq war.

There was widespread shock after the Chilcot Report, investigating the government’s decision to go to war, revealed an unnamed source, who was supposed to have access to Iraq’s chemical weapons programme, may have actually been referencing elements from the plot of Michael Bay’s action classic.

Starring Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, the film centres around a group of rogue soldiers who have taken hostages at Alcatraz and are threatening to unleash chemical weapons on the United States unless a ransom is paid.

Chemical weapons Image Buena Vista Pictures

Connery and Cage are tasked with finding and disarming these weapons which are not only capable of essentially melting people (see video below), but also come presented in some rather snazzy looking green glass balls.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, David Weisberg who co-wrote the film, expressed his shock at the Chilcot reports findings, while also explaining why said weapons were presented in such an eye-catching way on the finished film in the first place.

“Film is a visual medium, and there’s nothing visual about a substance that is colourless,” he said.

“We invented this whole string of glass pearls concept…Because it gave us these little round globules with green in them that you could see and be frightened of. And when one of those globules threatened to break, that’s when the bad stuff would happen.”

The Chilcot Report suggests MI6 intelligence on Iraq’s chemical weapon capabilities were influenced by the film, with several references to VX gas and both sarin and soman being contained in linked hollow glass spheres.

“What staggers me is whoever was debriefing this source didn’t take that information to the nearest chemical weapons expert, who immediately would have debunked it as bullshit,” he added.

“I mean, good lord, if movies were reality, we’d be in trouble.”

Not if Nicolas Cage was an FBI Special Agent we wouldn’t, Dave, especially if he had former SAS man Sean Connery by his side.